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THE FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY. 



BY A PATEIOT. 









A 



THE FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY. 



INTRODUCTION. 

THE STANDPOINT OF THE PARTY OF PEOGEESS. 

We are but too weU aware that human knowledge can never, 
by the very laws of its nature, penetrate the mist that surrounds 
future events. Not that the " what will be," as far as it is to 
become the reality of a moral ideal, is beyond the vision of the 
human mind, but because between it and its ultimate realization 
there ever enters that wizard phantom, Time, with its disappoint- 
ments, postponements, and consequent crushing of hopes. The 
idealist, who perceives the perfection of man as a certain fact of 
the future, is no idle dreamer, or cheating prophet ; his vision of a 
state of full happin'ess and general development of the human race 
will at one time be most certainly a reality ; but on the When ? on 
the question of years, of centuries, within which this idea will be 
realized, aU his calculations shatter and become idle speculations ; 
and we laugh at his Utopia, because six or seven thousand years have 
failed to realize it. That all-powerful, all-loving God, who created 
man, not a perfect being, the slave of preordained goodness and 
happiness, but in that grand state of imperfection, with merely 
the faculties and the choice to work his perfection, which placed 
him in possession of God's greatest gift — Liberty ; Him we may 
safely trust, that this Liberty is no illusion, but that it will finaUy 
work into this world the representation of that divine spirit, from 
which it emanates. 

It has already become general to speak of the events of this 
world as being governed by moral laws in superiority over natural 
laws ; and though not all who use this phrase may be aware of its 
full scope, or place more than a passing faith in it, people are nev. 
ertheless becoming accustomed to the thought, that the laws of 



4 THE FUTUKE OF THE COUNTRY. 

nature are but the servants of the great moral principle, (its visi- 
bility,) to which this world owes its existence and its importance ; 
and that, while these laws are perishable and changeable, the moral 
law alone remains eternally, ever and ever the same. It is man's 
province to subdue nature, to conquer it, to destroy the natural 
world and raise up a new moral world. The dead mass of matter, 
which we call nature, is but the material on which to build up, and 
with which to make visible the moral ideal we carry within us. 
To do this is our duty ; to recognize it as our duty and to live in 
it, is the emancipation of man from the slavery of nature ; the 
great act which makes him really free. 

And it is but a necessary part and parcel of this faith, to believe 
that each of our actions, no matter what its immediate results may 
be, carries within it the germ' of ultimate effectiveness and real- 
ization. No idea, once pronounced, remains without eifect, how- 
ever apparently slight ; ever and ever again it is taken up, trans- 
planted, watered and fed by the idealists of successive generations, 
until finally it branches out into a wonderful tree, from the fruits 
of which all the nations of the world gather strength, and thus 
becomes a practical reality. If it were not for this, the Gospel 
would never have been preached ; nor would countless dreamers 
have worked for the chimera of a united Italy until a Garibaldi 
gave it reality ; nor would Poland now be shedding tears, fiery 
and volcanic as those that fall from the sky of an American No- 
vember meteor night, and merely for a rebellion, which its leaders 
confess is almost hopeless for the generation engaged in it, but 
necessary as a sign to the future to persist in the work till it shall 
be accomplished. And hence there appear to the superficial glance 
many failures in history, which, read by the light of this view, are 
not failures at all, but the incipient germs of great future events, 
pronounced for the first time ; planted, but not yet ripened. Men 
felt a voice within them bid them do an action, which they did ; 
and the action was either buried under neglect, or successfully 
overthrown in moral or physical battle ; and posterity cried out on 
a failure. Thus in modern times the French revolutions, the former 
Polish insurrections, the attempts to form a united Germany, etc. 
But each such failure is pregnant with future success, as sure as it 
rests on justice and right ; while the success of the unjust and 
the wrong is no less sure to result in ultimate ruin. The world — 
the short-sighted world of practical men — may laugh at a Garibal- 
di's sublime letter to the English people, but his dream of peace 



THE FUTUEE OF THE COUNTRY. 5 

and harmony amongst the liberated people of Europe, and of a 
glorious brotherhood of nations is far more real, ay, and far more 
practical, than the crazy system of the present, which is rotten to 
the core, unjust, oppressive, and impractical, and which is only an 
appearance of the true light that is to come, a huge mountain of 
manure, from which the tree of true humanity is just shooting up ; 
an eastern cloud, on which, in spite of its darkness, the brilliant 
sun of coming perfection must need cast some rays. 

It is on these grounds that we can assuredly tell something of 
the " What will be ;" the working of moral laws is readable where 
the writing of natural phenomena becomes enveloped in obscurity ; 
and the " What ought to be," which our conscience demands of 
us to realize, as far as it is within our power, is but the foreknow- 
ledge of what will be realized in the future. 

It is the business of the chosen rulers of the people, of the prac- 
tical statesmen, to form a clear perception of this ultimate condi- 
tion of the human race ; to understand what peculiar position in it 
is allotted to their nation's, (or, in other words, what a nation's 
manifest destiny is,) and thereupon, taking into careful consider- 
ation the circumstances of the present, and the mental and moral 
position of a people, to realize so much of it as is compatible with 
those present circumstances. Each moment of the present should 
be impregnated with germs of future perfection ; but care should 
be taken, at the same time, not to retard the great work of 
progress by reforms for which the present is not yet ripe. We 
may add, that the manifest destiny of the American people, at the 
present moment, is to realize the total abolition of slavery. 

It is from this point of view, thus imperfectly traced out, that 
we propose to consider : The defects of our present condition and 
the reforms necessary to bring about a better future. We shall 
do so first in respect to the 

Violated Rights of the People as Republican Citizens. 

The writer is one of those who have ever believed, and do still 
believe, that the fundamental framework of this Union, the Con- 
stitution of the United States, is the greatest masterpiece of states- 
manship that has ever emanated from hnman mind. It is the 
political gospel of the nations of the world. The experiences of 
the present war, as well as our whole past history, have but con- 
firmed this view. Especially have they strengthened the convic- 



6 THE FUTUKE OF THE COUNTRY. 

tion that no other form of government is so preeminently capable 
of being applied to eveiy condition of nations. This system of a 
number of republican States joined together in a Federal Union, 
each State, to a certain extent, an independent body, but upheld 
by the gravitating power of the General Government, a system 
that almost seems to have been borrowed from the heavenly plan- 
ets, seems indeed to comprehend the perfection of republican 
government, nor is any other system, for centuries to come, likely 
to prove so effective in securing the rights and liberties of indi- 
vidual citizens and of State communities as well as the independ- 
ence of them all. Containing within itself its own mode of amend- 
ment, each transgression of its provisions is an enormous crime ; 
each rebellion against it an unjustifiable outrage ; nor can any 
republican government continue to exist, if the right of armed 
revolution is admitted. To dissolve a republican form of govern- 
ment, there can only be one mode : that of a national convention 
elected for that especial purpose, and the vote of the nation at 
large upon the acts of such a convention. 

It has of late become usual to question the perfection of our Con- 
stitution, and to assert that its framers had totally overlooked the 
ppssibility of war, of civil insurrections, or State secessions. We 
can find no just grounds for such an assumption, when the Consti- 
tution itself provides for all such contingencies, and confers all the 
powers necessary to remedy them. While it seems in itself pre- 
posterous to believe that the wise patriots who prepared this im- 
mortal document, with the crash of battle and the tumult of a re- 
bellion still ringing in their ears, should never have thought of war 
and insurrection, in the midst of their careful and well-considered 
labors, it is equally absurd to characterize a rebellion, like the one 
we are now engaged in, as one which could not possibly have been 
foreseen. 

The Constitution was evidently intended to form a perpetual 
union between the States adopting it, which no power but the ori- 
ginal power of the people, expressed through a convention, could 
ever override. It provided that amendments to it should be valid 
whenever ratified by three fourths of the States ; thus distinctly 
asserting that the remaining fourth should be compelled to obey 
the action of the majority, of the three fourths, whatever the mi- 
nority might otherwise be made to suffer by those amendments.* 

* " Provided, that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal 
suffrage in the Senate." 



THE FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY. 7 

It recognized the danger of insurrection at large against the gene- 
ral Government as distinct from domestic violence in the several 
States ; in the first case giving Congress power to call forth the 
militia to suppress it and to execute the laws ; in the other case 
instructing " the United States," that is, the Executive, to furnish 
protection to every State in the Union, " on the application of the 
Legislature, or of the Executive, (when the Legislature cau not be 
convened." 

Secession, therefore, being impossible without, and in fact con- 
stituting in itself insurrection, must be suppressed by Congress ; 
and for this purpose Congress has received authority " to provide 
for calling forth the militia ; to raise and support armies ; to pro- 
vide and maintain a navy ; and to make all laws which shall be ne- 
cessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing pow- 
ers" — of executing the laws of the Union, suppressing insurrections, 
repelling invasions, etc., and for carrying into execution " all other 
powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the 
United States, or in any department or officer thereof." 

Always provided, that none of these laws, which Congress may 
make for these purposes, shall carry into effect powers which are • 
especially prohibited to Congress. These prohibited powers — and 
it should be observed that they were evidently inserted for the 
very purpose of protecting the children and property of possible 
rebels and traitors — are: "No bill of attainder or ex post facto law 
shall be passed;" "No attainder of treason shall work corruption 
of blood, or forfeiture, except during the life of the person at- 
tainted." And again, though with other purposes in view besides : 
" Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of relig- 
ion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the free- 
dom of speech, or of the press ; or the right of the people peacea. 
bly to assemble and petition the Government for a redress of griev- 
ances." 

It may be noticed in passing, and to correct a wrong impression 
generally current, that this clause merely prohibits Congress from 
passing laws infringing on these rights, but that this prohibition 
does not extend to States ; hence the liberty of the press and the 
freedom of speech are not, as is generally supposed, constitutional 
rights, but rights which each State may guarantee in full, or limit 
to such an extent as is compatible with " a republican form of gov- 
ernment." (Sec. iv. Art. iv.) Hence State constitutions always 
contain bills of rights, to which the people owe their rights and 
liberties. 



8 THE FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY. 

And now, weighing these paltry prohibitions against the full 
and unlimited power of Congress to suppress insurrections, we ask : 
Is not that power sufficient ? Could Congress exercise any more 
authority without endangering the whole fabric of the govern- 
ment, and infringing on what ought to be the inalienable rights of 
citizens ? Congress has full power to " raise and support armies, 
provide and maintain a navy, make rules for the government and 
regulation of the land and naval forces, provide for calling forth 
the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, 
and repel invasions ; and finally, to make all laws which shall be 
necessary and proper to carry into execution the foregoing powers 
and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the Government 
of the United States, or in any department or officers thereof" — 
amongst which latter powers are those vested in the President to 
"preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United 
States." 

When such a multitude of vast powers are conferred upon the 
United States Government, powers which permit it to place all the 
militia, all the United States armies and the navy under the con- 
trol of the President, as commander-in-chief, for the purpose of 
suppressing insurrections against the Government, wherever they 
may have arisen, and when, hence, the President may make war 
upon and extend martial law over any insurrectionary district, dis- 
arm all citizens, declare free all the slaves, levy contributions, and 
seize all necessary property ; this should certainly be sufficient, and 
all addition to these necessary powers should be considered as the 
sure prelude to tyranny. 

And yet a new set of party philosophers has sprung up, to whom 
all this is not enough, and who hasten with uplifted hands to offer 
their rights and liberties as an additional sacri6ce on the altar of the 
country. We can not join this throng. We can not share this 
insane exaltation of patriotism. As Christianity sternly refuses 
that self-assassination in which heathen gods delight, so pure and 
genuine patriotism refuses to accept one drop of inborn rights and 
liberties as a sacrifice. It is impiety, sacrilege ; and it is worse, 
since it works corruption of blood, and exposes our children and 
children's children to the danger of tyranny and despotism. Un- 
der the delusive teaching of this misguided sect, the people of Ame- 
rica have lost more than the millions which the war will cost, and 
the hundreds of thousands of their sons ; they have allowed the 
virginity of the republic to be violated. Under the influence of 



THE FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY. » 

these delusive doctrines the people have permitted Government, in 
non-insurrectionary districts, where no martial law had been de- 
clared, to incarcerate citizens on mere suspicion ; to tear husbands 
from their wives, and brothers from their sisters ; to infringe on 
the rights of the press, and prohibit the exercise of free speech. 
Under this melancholy delusion, the people have applauded at the 
commission of the greatest known crimes— crimes against the lib- 
erty of unconvicted citizens ! 

It is folly to assert, that the prohibition to infringe on those 
rights was meant only for times of peace, and that in times of war 
the United States Government can cancel that prohibition at its 
own convenience. The United States would never think of in- 
fringing on these rights in time of peace ; there would be no 
necessity, no pretext for it ; those clauses were evidently inserted 
to secure citizens in time of public turbulence, of rebellion or 
war. They were inserted to guarantee the liberties of citizens 
of the State of New-York, if a local insurrection in South-Caro- 
lina should make their suspension there by State authority — or, 
in case of a State rebellion, by martial law — necessary and ex- 
pedient. If the United States Government had not been prohib- 
ited from violating these rights, the government could have abro- 
gated Free Speech, a Free Press, and the Right of Petition over 
all the territory of the Union, because a local disturbance had 
made martial law necessary in the State of Florida. 

Of the many dangers of demoralization, with which a war in 
a republican country is fraught, none is so imminent and disas- 
trous as the tendency to centralization, which it inspires. It 
has grown common, alas ! and almost a test of loyalty to speak 
favorably of a " strong government." The madmen of the French 
Revolution of IV 93-4, and the despots of the Napoleon school 
are regarded with a sort of veneration, as the representatives of 
a proper " strong government !" Why can not people remember 
the terrible results in history ! Nothing is so sure to destroy the 
liberties of the people, and to make men forget that each fellow- 
citizen is equally free and entitled to the same share of protection, 
as the centralization of power in the hands of one Executive, 
or one Congress. When citizens are found willing to see the 
rights of their fellow-citizens— though they entertain utterly oppo- 
site views— trampled upon, when Republicans clamor for lawless 
military proceedings against Democrats, and trust no longer to 
the force of their arguments ; then the foundation of a republi- 



10 THE FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY. 

can form of government is shattered, and a purifying ordeal is 
necessary to make the people capable of understanding the duties 
of republican citizens ! A number of those, who venerate strong 
governments, point to the European governments as models, or, 
if foreigners, forget themselves so far as to say : You Americans 
do not understand the powers of a government yet ; you have to 
learn this, and what it is to be in a state of war ! These people 
do not recollect, that they have always denounced and still de- 
nounce the European governments on account of their strength 
and arbitrary centralized power, and that this republic had no 
greater glory to boast of than that, even in times of war and 
insurrection the liberties of peaceable citizens must remain re- 
spected. What was then a glory is thus made a reproach now, 
and a detested form of government is held up now for imitation. 
Other philosophers ascribe this republican esteem of personal lib- 
erty as an out-growth of that predominant individuality, which 
distinguishes the British and American people, and demand that 
this too luxuriant growth of individualism should be submerged 
in what they term the idea of " the State." That is to say, per- 
sons should cease to be so much individuals, and should become 
more State-citizens, members of a commonwealth. And, hence, 
they argue, the State, or the government, representing thus, at 
all times, the citizens at large, the liberty, right or inclination of 
one individual ought always to be at the disposal of the govern- 
ment for the general benefit. Without entering further upon this 
qtiixotic proposition} we merely content ourselves with remark- 
ing, that the welfare and safety of the whole is invariably best 
promoted by strictly maintaining the rights and liberties of each 
individual; whenever it appears otherwise, the appearance is 
erroneous. No injustice, no wrong, however small, should ever 
be committed to obtain a large amount of good. The end does 
not sanctify the means ; but honesty is the best policy. 

So sacred is individual liberty to us, that we can not consider 
conscription a republican measure. The Constitution seems to 
permit it, in giving Congress power to raise and support armies 
independently of calling forth the militia of the States. But it 
seems impossible to reconcile it with that idea of a republican 
government, the basis of which was to be individual liberty, 
which our forefathers conceived. But there is another reason. 
The people at large certainly do not abdicate the right to govern 
their national affairs after each presidential election. On the 



THE FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY. 11 

contrary, they continue to direct and guide it by Congressional 
and Senatorial elections, by free speech, a free press and the right 
of petition for redress of grievances. These directions are, how- 
ever, necessarily vague, not always effective, often without result 
at all. In no possible condition can the people feel it more their 
duty to pronounce their opinions on national affairs clearly and 
unmistakably than in times of war. But they abdicate the pos- 
sibility to make their opinions respected, if they admit conscrip- 
tion. That silences the people. Unless they wish to revolt, they 
can not compel the administration to a change of policy. They 
must support the government and seem to support every action 
of it. Upon this ground conscription should never be tolerated, 
and volunteer enlistments alone be depended on for saving the 
country. It is quite true, that Congress can refuse appropriations 
for the war, but in times of public disturbance, when every thing 
depends on the proper use of time, and when a few months may 
decide the fate of a nation, the influence of the people should be 
as direct as possible upon the Executive power. If a govern- 
ment could procure no volunteers, it would be a sure sign that 
the people did not approve the policy of the government ; and, 
hence, a change would become necessary. Thus it can not be 
doubted, that if President Lincoln had at the proper moment 
removed General Halleck and other pro-slavery generals, whose 
relations to the rebellious States were more than suspected, and 
had given Generals Fremont, Sigel, etc., authority to raise volun- 
teers, appealing to the people at the same time in favor of univer- 
sal emancipation and liberty, the draft would have been unneces- 
sary, and sufficient volunteers would have been enlisted. A 
change of the Cabinet on a liberal basis would probably have pro- 
duced a similar result. This at least may be gathered from the 
general tone of the loyal press, the numerous mass-meetings of 
loyal citizens, and a knowledge of human nature. If, however, 
the people should have been totally unwilling to continue the 
war, to furnish men and means for its further prosecution, the 
progressive party could have had no other choice than to submit 
to a separation, awaiting a better time and more favorable oppor- 
tunities for the realization of their liberal ideas. For, above all 
things, liberty and the rule of the majority should be upheld in a 
republic. Better sacrifice the immediate attainment of your lib- 
eral projects than to accomplish them at the expense of liberty 
and justice. The good can not be forced, but must be obtained 



12 THE FUTUKE OF THE COUNTRY. 

by reason. Arbitrary action for the purpose of accomplishing 
ever so pure desires is a crime, a bad means to attain a good end, 
which only Jesuits advocate in theory. It is, besides, a two-edged 
sword which may at any moment be turned quite as well against 
the people. 

By the light of these reflections it must be considered one of 
the greatest public calamities, that the wise and comprehensive 
Constitution of our fathers has become to be viewed as an obsolete, 
worn-out document, and that the minds of a large number of citi- 
zens have lost their old republican chastity. The basis of our re- 
publican institutions has thus been undermined, and unless a 
healthy reaction takes place soon, innumerable disasters must fol- 
low. We must especially condemn the Administration, which has 
accustomed the people to these ideas of a despotical government, 
by violating their rights and liberties under circumstances which 
formed no adequate pretext.* The arrest of Northern citizens of 
States not under martial law and in insurrection, has never been 
proved to have been at the time the only means of saving the 
Republic, and protecting the rights of the people ; and while the 
people indorsed the war as unmistakably by volunteering as if 
they had been called to vote on the subject, the exercise of arbi- 
trary power in the arrest of unconvicted citizens — where civil 
courts existed to take cognizance of any offense, acknowledged 
by i aw — wa s unmistakably repudiated by the people in the elec- 
tions immediately following these first acts of despotism, as well 
as in speeches, papers, public meetings, and other outlets of public 
opinion. 

Nor can we refrain from condemning the Administration for its 

* For we do not intend to deny that circumstances may arise where a violation 
of law is necessary to maintain law. When the President, for instance, issued his 
order for volunteers, before Congress had given him authority to do so, he exceed- 
ed his constitutional powers, and became a violator of the law ; but that was one 
of those exceptional cases which occur at times when the letter of the law, or 
logical deductions of legal provisions are set aside in obedience to a higher im- 
pulse, or to conscience, bidding man do what is right even if it is not law. Even 
in private life moral law may thus override civil law and the requirements of the 
statutes, and may force a conscientious citizen rather to submit to the penalty 
attached by the State to the breaking of a certain law, than violate his conscience 
by conforming to it. In the case alluded to, President Lincoln preferred to do his 
duty to obeying the logic of legal interpretation, and submit his violation of the 
law to the tribunal of Congress ; while Mr. Buchanan invariably pursued the con- 
trary course, and has been cursed by the people accordingly. 



THE FUTUEE OF THE COUNTRY. 13 

continued resistance to the expressed wishes of the peoj^lc ou 
other questions. Generals Halleck, McClellan, and Buell were 
retained in command of the most important departments, to the 
infinite loss of men and means, and at the risk of total defeat, at 
a time when the united voice of the loyal people demanded in the 
strongest possible peaceable manner their immediate removal ; 
while General Fremont, in whom the people of the whole country- 
reposed and expressed a confidence, which no other General has 
ever since been able to inspire, was disgracefully torn from a vic- 
toriously advancing army, most ardently devoted to him, and 
amidst the profound grief and sorrow of the nation. When it is 
remembered that the ancient republics have accumulated their 
highest glory in war, and that the people have always evinced 
a profound and almost superhuman instinct for discovering the 
proper military leaders in perilous times, the cold and almost dis- 
dainful neglect with which the President and his Cabinet have 
treated the military advice of the people, amounts to almost a 
crime. This neglect and disregard has been exemplified in many 
other ways. When the people at first offered hundreds of thou- 
sands of men, the Government refused to accept them ; the Ger- 
mans of St. Louis had to beg and sue before they were permitted 
to organize as home guards and save Missouri ; the people con- 
tinued to offer cavalry, while Government as foolishly and per- 
sistently refused to receive any ; the offers of the people of East- 
Tennessee were spurned with contempt, and their hand, stretched 
out to seize the ship of the Union and cling to its planks for 
safety, were remorselessly cut off. And yet that noble State knelt 
with its bloody arm to beg on its knees for permission to be loyal, 
and for arms. The treatment of Missouri has become notorious. 
In the selection of commanders for the department of which it 
formed the principal part, the will of the people of that State has 
been constantly disregai'ded, and with an unexplainable persist- 
ency, while in matters of military policy, the treatment of rebel- 
lious citizens, etc., the course of the Administration has been such 
as to force almost the united loyal people of Missouri into open 
opposition to the Administration. 

This is a republic, and a democratic republic. The people are 
the rulers, and the will of the people should always govern, whe- 
ther the people are right or wrong. We insist on this rule of the 
people as the primary principle, the corner-stone, which must be 
upheld at any cost. We are perfectly willing to submit our best 



14 THE FUTUEE OF THE COUNTRY. 

views, our most cherished plans and ideas, to the judgment of the 
people, and to acquiesce if the majority of the people adopt the 
very reverse ; but on that very account, too, we must insist that 
the will of the majority be carried out, when they indorse those 
views and ideas. This republican spirit has been thoroughly dis- 
regarded by the Administration, in spite of the most effective 
demonstrations, and this is a crime which a free people can never 
forgive. True, the people bear a large portion of this censure, 
because they tolerated this disregard and failed to protest against 
it in a manner to make their protest listened to. And they had 
accustomed themselves in former times to be thus trampled upon, 
by caring too little for the political affairs of the country, by leav- 
ing the direction of politics to the exclusive management of pro- 
fessional politicians and wire-pullers, and forgetting their duties as 
citizens at the time of primary and public elections. But the 
crime of the Administration is not lessened because the ])eople had 
committed faults and failed to reprove it. 

At the very outset of this rebellion the Administration, instead 
of following the directions of the loyal people of the loyal States, 
allowed itself persistently to be controlled by the minority of half 
rebellious Border States. An immense solicitude was evinced lest 
one superfluous drop of " fraternal " traitors' blood be shed, and a 
tittle of the constitutional rights of rebels be wiped away, while 
the blood and the rights of the loyal citizens were freely drawn 
upon, to prosecute a system of war and a policy which the majori- 
ty of the loyal people condemned, and while the blood of the best 
patriots was freely shed by those very rebels whom the bloody 
humanity of our Government would not exterminate. While the 
united voice of the country cried, " Energy, where the rebellion 
is ! military extermination ! down with the traitors and rebels ! " 
the Government at Washington persistently held back, instead of 
being in advance of the people, or at least following them closely. 
Energy was only displayed in arresting a few "copperhead" 
street-talkers, and the country was brought to the brink of ruin, 
because the President cherished an affection for Halleck, McClel- 
lan, and Buell. 

Thus the people had to push, and to push, and to push, merely 
to move the Washington Government a little ahead, while all their 
energy was required by thousands of other sacrifices, disasters, 
and political problems. Was it a wonder if they finally became 
dispirited and furnished no more volunteers ? When the first 



THE FUTURE OP THE COUNTRY. 15 

words of enthusiasm rolled from Fremont's lips over the country, 
in that memorable proclamation which announced " The slaves of 
rebels shall be free men" a million of echoes took up the long- 
awaited words and shouted them again, till the Northern States 
appeared almost purified from a long tolerated immoral sentiment. 
But did the Washington Government heed the voice of the peo- 
ple ? A few of the Border State conservatives outweighed all the 
unflinching patriotism of the loyal States, and a damper was 
thrown upon public feeling which even Abraham Lincoln's Eman- 
cipation Proclamation, the ineffective echo of Fremont's trumpet, 
was unable to remove. 

It has thus been shown, though a much greater force of argu- 
ment might have been brought to bear upon the subject, that these 
violations of republican rights and principles, and excesses of con- 
stitutional power, have not only been a public calamity at the 
time when they were exercised, but that they continue to operate 
most disastrously upon the public mind. The poison has not only 
called forth violent distempers at the time of its administration, 
but continues to spread the germ of decay over every part of the 
political body. It has been confessed that the people themselves 
deserve great censure for permitting these violations, for offering 
no protest to the many encroachments upon their republican liber- 
ties, but rather offering them up at the altar of an excessive patri- 
otism in a spirit of condemnable self-sacrifice. In regard to the 
first, it is absolutely necessary, for the purpose of avoiding prece- 
dents and of conforming to that moral law which permits no man 
to see his fellow-man abused without offering some sort of remon- 
strance or protest, that the Administration which committed or 
allowed these outrages should receive a united and earnest rebuke 
from the people. To make this rebuke effective, there is only one 
legitimate way, which will also appeal strongest to history and be 
a warning to future generations — by means of a party organiza- 
tion on the distinct enumerated grounds of these complaints : No 
high officials, and especially no President, should be elected at the 
next election who do not pledge themselves solemnly in behalf of 
these violated rights. Whether the present President should be 
impeached for usurping despotic power is justly questionable, as 
he may have acted, and presumptively has, in obedience to his 
views of fairness, and actuated solely by a sincere regard for the 
maintenance of the Union ; but a resolution by Congress disap- 
proving these his despotical actions, might not be too severe an 



16 THE FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY. 

additional punishment and memento to posterity. The Cabinet 
officers, however, who have usurped unwarranted power on their 
own responsibility, and military officers who have disregarded the 
provisions of the Army Regulations in favor of the liberties of 
subordinates, should be visited with the extreme rigor of the law. 
As far as the second point is concerned, it should hereafter be- 
come the especial object of every patriot and well-meaning citizen, 
who has the interest of the Republic at heart, to caution bis fellow- 
citizens against ever again surrendering their inalienable rights, 
though it be but for a limited time. Let us permit individual 
liberty in every case : whether our fellow-citizens choose to hast- 
en to the succor of the country or to stay at home in chilling indif- 
ference ! Seek to infuse a better republican spirit into the people ! 
Tell them they must attend more to political affairs, and that our 
past disasters have been produced not by too active but by too 
passive a political spirit in the people ! Induce the people to take 
the primary elections in their own hands, and not to leave their 
control to wire-pullers and professional politicians. Infuse the 
spirit into the people that they themselves are the rulers of the 
Republic and the shapers Of its destiny ; that the people under- 
stand governing much better than statesmen, (this is the funda- 
mental, but too often forgotten and silently ridiculed, yet true and 
holy basis of all republican governments ;) that their statesmen and 
officials are but servants of the people, and that, in times of war 
and trouble even more than in periods of peace and tranquillity, it 
is the duty of the people to come together in mass meetings, con- 
sult upon public affairs, and instruct their servants as to what they 
shoidd do. No official who has ever disobeyed the instructions of 
the majority of his constituents, should again be intrusted with 
office. The people should be terribly jealous of their sovereign 
rights, and neither the Governor of a State nor the President of 
the United States, should ever be allowed with impunity to infringe 
upon this sovereignty ! 

The Negro Question. 
Not of less momentous national importance, and incomparably 
more difficult of a solution as equally a political and a social prob- 
lem, another and the most peculiar characteristic of our crisis 
presents itself in the race and slavery or the negro-question. 
Without considering the Border States as a distinct cluster of 
States, we find the rebellion existing in all the slave States and 
in none but slave States. 



THE FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY. 17 

(We may as well premise here, that, as we view the matter, these 
States have not merely rebelled as a part of the people of the 
United States, but also as States of the Union, through their legal- 
ly elected governments, and without meeting with any armed re- 
sistance from any loyal minority or portion of citizens. We can 
not, however, conclude from this, that this State rebellion has 
annihilated the State, any more than Schleswig Holstein was anni- 
hilated by the rebellion against Denmark. This annihilation of 
the State, as a State, is only possible with the consent of the in- 
habitants. But this rebellion may, and undoubtedly does annihi- 
late all existing State governments, as composed of rebels, (active 
or passive rebels,) and so place the territory of the State tempora- 
rily under military rule.) 

The United States Government, perceiving, therefore, that the 
rebellion had its cause and support in slavery, was induced, by 
military as well as political considerations, to declare all the slaves 
free men. The proclamation, by which this declaration was made 
law, was issued by the President as Commander-in-Chief, and in 
no other capacity, but on that very ground is valid and must 
remain valid forever as a military measure, properly executed by 
the chief commander. If it had been issued in violation of the 
Constitution, martial law could give it no validity, nor should it 
have been attempted under such circumstances, since the Consti- 
tution was framed for all possible contingencies. But the Consti- 
tution does not acknowledge the right of slavery, much less does 
it protect it and declare it beyond congressional power as it does 
free speech and a free press, but least of all does it exempt the 
slaveholder's right from being abolished as the punishment of his 
treason, as it exempts the traitor's right to leave his property to 
his children after his death. The same right, which intrusts the 
President with the power to suppress insurrections, etc., and thus 
to kill rebels without trial by jury,* gives him and the military 
power at large the authority to liberate all the slaves. And as 
the killed can not be called to life again, so can not the slaves, 
once declared free, reenter slavery. Slavery has no support in 
the Constitution whatever; the very name was odious to the 
framers of that document, and was not once pronounced ; the 
only two clauses relating to the subject give no support to slavery, 
but grant exceptional favors to slave States ; and their very word- 

* Indirectly. For the object of war is not to kill, but to disarm the soldiers, 
possess the territory, and make a return of war impossible. 
2 



18 THE FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY. 

ing, position and structure show that they were meant to be 
exceptional, and temporary, and favoring. The clause in regard 
to the delivery of fugitive slaves, is framed so as to be equally 
applicable to any fugitive servants, and may properly remain in 
the Constitution after slavery has been abolished for centuries. 
The clause in regard to congressional representation has become 
obsolete — except as far as the Indians not taxed are concerned — 
like some other provisions which were meant to be only tempo- 
rary. The clause in relation to the slave-trade, for instance, has 
become obsolete in this way long ago, and the very circumstance 
that the repeal of this third clause in relation to slavery was fore- 
seen and mentioned in another part of the Constitution, confirms, 
at least, the supposition that the repeal of the other two clauses 
was also foreseen. But whatever the views of our forefathers 
were in that respect, it can not be denied that the abolition of 
slavery by United States military and martial law is not against 
the Constitution of the United States, that slavery is not protect- 
ed by the Constitution in times of war from the exercise of mili- 
tary power as the rights of free speech, etc., are ; nor do even 
any of the State Constitutions of the rebellious States pretend to 
guarantee slavery against the power of martial law. No State 
now in rebellion even protects slavery in its own State against 
martial law within the State declared by the Governor. In 
South- Carolina or Louisiana, the Governor might, at the time 
of secession, have extended martial law over the whole State, de- 
clared all slaves free, armed them, and by their aid won bach the 
State, without violating a tittle of her 2>ro-slavery State Constitu- 
tion. 

It is folly to speak about the validity of the proclamation ceas- 
ing when the States in question return to allegiance by the official 
act of the people. The slaves are declared free ; and as no State 
has the power to annul an act of the General Government, so the 
proclamation can not be annulled by any act of the State, which 
may be passed. The former State Constitution and State laws 
resume, of course, their former standing, but as far as they relate 
to slavery, their provisions have become obsolete by the procla- 
mation. Nor can any decision of the Supreme Court properly 
reenslave the liberated negroes, though it perhaps might pro- 
nounce the former slaveholders entitled to a pecuniary indemnity ; 
the boon of liberty extended to the negroes is binding forever, 
and can be annulled by no power ; no more than a law could be 



THE FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY. 19 

repealed or declared invalid by the courts, which should invest 
all foreign-born citizens, who have partaken in this war, with the 
full rights of American citizenship. Hence, slavery has a legal 
existence only in the Border States, to which the President's 
proclamation does not apply. But to prevent force, intrigue, and 
injustice from ever finding the least pretext to place the shackles 
again on human beings, Congress should make provision, first : 
to provide for keeping the rebellious States under military rule, 
until every slave has been set free, under the law of the land, and 
until peace has been made secure for the future ; secondly, to de- 
clare slavery solemnly forever abolished in America — all slaves 
free ! No matter whether belonging to loyal or disloyal citizens ! 
Freedom for all men, whether black, or yellow, or red, or white ! 
This must be accomplished at any cost ; unless this is attained, all 
our efforts in procuring peace are rendered abortive and ridicu- 
lous. Nothing less can satisfy a purified people, can restore a 
Union, can do justice to all. Freedom for every one ! These 
must be the thunder-words, clad in language grand and simple, 
like that of the Declaration of Independence, which shall kindle 
a new spirit in the American people, and prepare them for those 
measures of reform in their several States, which the progress of 
the present and the future will demand of them. Slavery must 
hereafter be hated, despised. It must be recognized as a crime 
in itself, which no circumstances can alleviate. It must be under- 
stood that every slave has, and always had, th moral right to 
secure his liberty by any act, even by murder, which will secure 
him that right, as every oppressed people have a right to murder 
their tyrants and oppressors. Freedom is God's greatest gift. It 
is the light and bliss of life ; it itself is life. If God gave man 
even liberty to do evil — so as to give him that boon full, complete, 
and unconditional — how can man interfere with the liberty of 
his fellow-being, except in so far as an organized community 
agrees to punish such wicked interference ? 

Moreover, the Constitution of the United States throws no pro- 
tecting shield over this wickedness. Congress has full power to 
abrogate the institution, whenever "the general welfare" of the 
country may demand it.* The welfare, the safety, the future of 

* Congress has the power : " To make all laws which shall be necessary for car- 
rying into execution the foregoing powers," (suppressing insurrections, amongst 
others,) "and all other powers, vested by this Constitution in the Government of 
the United States, or in any department or officer thereof." 



20 THE FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY. 

the country now require it. Slavery must go down and freedom 
arise. No Border State clamors must be permitted to silence 
this cry. It is the indispensable reform, which must be accom- 
plished immediately. Postponement is death ! It is reaction. 
It is the galvanization of a putrid corpse, to arise once more and 
stretch out its withered limbs, and then to fall back again into 
everlasting death. But then the question arises : What shall be- 
come of the negroes? 

Various answers have been proposed. Let us first see what is 
impracticable, or altogether out of the question, and thus narrow 
down the field of speculation. It has been suggested that all 
the colored people, emancipated by this war, be exported to and 
colonized in some foreign country. This project appeal's to be 
so palpably suicidal to the country at large, and so thoroughly 
ruinous to the Southern States, that it seems superfluous to object 
to it on moral or legal grounds. When the slaves are once liber- 
ated, a healthy public opinion must and will regard them as a 
class of citizens, wronged and outraged for a countless number 
of years, to whom reparation is not only due, but a duty. To 
increase the guilt of the nation still further, by exiling these four 
millions of unfortunate men from a country, which they have not 
selected by their own free will, and which has been forced upon 
them as their home, would be quite as great an outrage as the 
first crime which brought them to these shores. Setting aside, 
however, this argument — how can this country afford to lose a 
population of laborers, numbering over four millions — laborers, 
too, peculiarly adapted to the labor required in the Southern 
States — without plunging at once into the deepest gulf of politi- 
cal and financial ruin ? We will grant, that the Northern States 
have already learned, within the short space of the last two years, 
to dispense with the results of this enormous amount of labor ; 
but it must be remembered, that a great share of the present 
Northern prosperity is built upon the hope of reaping immense 
rewards from the future productions of that labor. As far as the 
Southern States are concerned, however, they would be totally 
ruined and helplessly laid waste for an infinite number of years, 
if such a policy were resolved upon and could be carried out. 
To expect any diminution of the ruin from the influx of Euro- 
pean emigration, would be vain, for the Northern States will con- 
tinue to absorb it almost exclusively for a large number of years, 
unless all appearances deceive us. The disasters which must 



THE FUTUBE OF THE COHNTKT. 21 

necessarily follow such a proposed depopulation are, h" *o 
immense and arise so vividly before the eye upon a moments 
refl Senile history has also furnished us with so many exam- 
^ es o the deplorable effects resulting from sim, ar expernn nte, 
Itot we feel safe in at once dismissing the whole project as im- 
p ssMe It has also been proposed, to drive *--- 
nooulatiou of the Southern States into one of these States, ana 
Z o form a sort of colony of negroes within this republic 
tnus 10 101 , a|](J finano i a l 

This proposition is open to the same moia , b , 
objections as the former one, except that the one State selected 
3ft exempted from the general ruin ; it is equally impracti- 
cable as far a the mode of transportation, etc is concerned 
though the political problem, which it presents, might be capaUe 
of aueasys'olutiou. Itmust therefore he likewise discarded as 

altogether out of the question. ,.„fl P ctions- 

We have thus arrived at one certain resut of on, eflec mis . 
The necnoes must remain in this country, and in the States where 
S "or eau they be, when free, excluded from residence 
„ any State, since the Constitution especially provides, that the 
"tizens of one State shall enjoy all the privileges and immumt es 
citizens 01 o determined, 

of citizens of the ""£*££" W ha shall be the status 
the question reduces itself to this snape vv 
of the negroes in the States where they reside? And this ques 
tionTs "'involved with the other question : What shall be the 
status of the Southern States when they return to the Union ? that 
we propose to consider the latter first. 

The Reconstruction of the Union. 

We mavas well elear the way for this intricate question by 

nolo ,1^ the o,ffy solution heretofore proposed, and which, as i 

"me "from the friends of the rebels and of sla very, is sure to 

print their argument in its most exhaustive shape. This prop 

"i^Heveral States through their respective Legisla- 
te™ Cmy for readmission into the Union, Congress must admit 
tures, appiy ixzi coots- their acts ot seces- 

their Representatives and Senatois to seats, tnen a 

t0 The President's emancipation proclamation then becomes in- 



22 THE FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY. 

operative, slavery assumes its former position, and the Court 
may decide whether the liberated slaves are free, or whether the 
respective Southern States may demand their return under the 
fugitive slave law. It seems almost superfluous to argue such a 
preposterous proposition, the more so as it is in itself impossible. 

If we have freely admitted that a State can not be wiped out 
of existence without the consent of its inhabitants, it is on the 
other hand equally true, and moreover a fact, that all the States 
in rebellion against the Government — the people of which States 
have so rebelled through their Legislatures or Conventions, the 
actions of which bodies no part of the people has repudiated — 
are subject to the military power of the United States, which 
power, by the laws of war and common sense and under the Con- 
stitution holds those insurrectionary districts under subjugation 
until all danger of a reoccurrence is done away with ; a circum- 
stance which it rests with the loyal people of the loyal States to 
decide upon. What more absurd than to assume, that a rebel- 
lious State, Illinois, for instance, could at any moment rebel and 
within a few months stop the rebellion and send Representatives 
to Congress, and then rebel again — after the United States troops 
had been removed, and so on, all the rest of the States being 
powerless to force it to give guarantees, or to hold it under mili- 
tary rule as long as necessary in their opinion ? What if that 
rule were applied to individual criminals? 

Congress is especially intrusted with the power in certain cases 
of fixing the times, manner, and places, where elections for Con- 
gressional representatives are to be held in the States. (Sec iv. 
art. 1.) This power is applicable to the very condition in which 
the rebel States are at present. Under this constitutional power, 
and with a military possession of the States, Congress may make 
such laws as will secure justice to the States as well as to the 
country at large, at the earliest practicable moment. Congress has 
the power to decide on the " elections-, returns, and qualifications 
of its own members." Hence Congress may aptly reject any 
members elected in rebel States by rebels under a rebel State 
government, and may postpone the elections until such a period 
as it thinks proper, when it will have to fix the " time, manner, 
and places" for each State, as it may see fit. Oaths can be pre- 
scribed and in many ways the election of loyal members by loyal 
citizens can be secured. It may, for instance, be deemed just and 
expedient to endow all the blacks with the right of the elective 



THE FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY. 23 

franchise As for the President's proclamation, we have already 
declared, that no State act of any kind can render it inoperative, 
nor can a Court decision reenslave free men. It will be no- 
ticed, that we consider the status of the rebel States after the 
end of the war as indefinable and varied, to be settled by Con- 
cress and according to circumstances, and the contingencies of 
the future. In the same way, that we hold the rebel States at 
present, and constitutionally under military rule, we can hold 
them hereafter; and circumstances must decide when any ol 
the States may be safely reentitled to congressional representa- 
tion The "When" it is, of course, impossible to determine 
beforehand. The temper of the Southern people is so unknown 
to us • the age, in which we live, is so "fast," to use a slang ex- 
pression, that all the precedents of former similar experiences are 
lost upon us. Thus it is not improbable that a "radical, anti- 
slavery, abolition party may be successfully started m every slave 
State with the same result as in Missouri, while we must neither 
be disappointed, if the Southern people remain firm in their 
deadly hostility to us. At present it is altogether uncertain, 
whether it will be five or fifteen years before every rebellious 
State can be again represented in Congress. Until that time mil- 
itarv rule is a "fact" in the Southern States, and no party clamor 
or demagogical denunciations can change it. The existing State 
Legislatures in the rebellious States may be tolerated by the mili- 
tary power, or they may be removed. If they are removed, Con- 
gress can order elections for new State governments, whenever it 
is considered just and expedient. 

The Negro Question. 

The question, then, is now: What should be the status of the 
liberated slaves in those States, during the military rule and after- 
wards * The two chief objects are : to secure the freedom of these 
neeroes, and to retain their labor in the Southern States, where it 
can not be replaced. 

We suggest the following programme : _ 

Let each State be erected into a military department, with a 
proportionate number of sub-departments. Detachments of troops 
at the proper military points to quench disturbances In each 
subdepartment a list of all the slaves should be carefully pre- 
pared; their freedom papers made out and given them; and it 



24 THE FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY. 

should be left entirely to their own will, whether they choose to 
remain with their masters or to live independently. Those who 
preferred the latter course should receive a certain amount of land 
for cultivation, on a homestead law basis ; while those who de- 
sired to remain with their masters should be permitted to do so, 
on a fixed agreement drawn up between the master and the serv- 
ant, in which the master must acknowledge the liberty of his for- 
mer slave, and agree to pay the servant a certain remuneration 
per annum as long as the servant may choose to remain with him. 
It should also be stipulated that the blacks be permitted to go to 
schools in certain months of the year ; and while schools ought to 
be erected for the especial use of the blacks by military authority, 
the children of the negroes should be forced to attend them regu- 
larly. 

This perhaps comprises every thing that is essential ; less, at 
least, can not secure peace and early prosperity. The blacks, re- 
ceiving this education and under the influence of liberty, will soon 
be qualified not merely to be " inhabitants" of the State, but to be 
made participators in the progress of the State and National Gov- 
ernments. Of course, as soon as the slaves are emancipated, they 
can not be excluded from political action ; the distinction of color 
ceases altogether and forever. Thus, by the right of voting, they 
will be made useful to check any future tendencies of a rebellious 
character amongst their former masters, and become the guaran- 
tees of an eternal Union. Soon the prejudice of race will receive 
its death-blow, as the prejudice of nationality has died out, and 
under the united care of the negroes, the mulattoes, and whites, 
the South will become a far more prosperous territory than it ever 
could be under the influence of slavery. If cotton be not 
raised as cheap again, neither will there cling a curse to that traffic, 
and the fertile ground of the Southern States will find products far 
more advantageous for all human kind. As for the guerrilla spirit, 
which desolates Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky, that is but a 
creation of the deplorable Border State policy, which has ruled 
those States ; in the far removed Southern States, under strict mil- 
itary rule, amidst large plantations, little need be feared from it. 
The liberated blacks will be fully able to protect themselves 
against the whites that remain, and the cursed spirit of superiority 
and disdainful pride once thoroughly eradicated from the upgrow- 
ing population of the South, a healthy state of public opinion may 
eventually even develop itself amongst the former slaveholders, 



THE FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY. 25 

while the non-slaveholders will doubtless soon form in every South- 
ern State an anti-slavery, abolition party, and from the former ad- 
vocates of oppression change suddenly into inspired apostles of 
freedom. By the natural progress of affairs they will receive the 
control of the first loyal State governments — a powerful incen- 
tive ! — and their interest, as well as that of the country at large, will 
be promoted by evincing the earliest sympathy with the negroes, 
and helping them onward on the road to universal progress. 

A National Convention. 

The idea of a national convention has been repeatedly suggested 
as a solution of all our troubles and dissensions. From whatever 
quarter this idea has been thrown out, it has always been framed 
so as to wear the appearance of a proposition to call together a 
national convention of delegates from the Southern as well as the 
Northern States. But this stamps the whole project at once as pre- 
posterous nonsense. 

Tt is absurd to think of the delegates of the loyal people of the 
North, the victors, meeting on equal terms with the delegates of 
the rebels of the South, the subjugated ! This the Southern States 
of course have no right to demand. They are rebels, and by 
no temporary submission, pleas, and prayers can they withdraw 
themselves from the punishment of their crime. To pronounce 
this punishment belongs to the loyal people of the loyal States. 
That people may be generous, may be content with the emancipa- 
tion of the slaves, the death of the principal leaders of the rebel- 
lion, and a military rule for a short time ; but to grant a full par- 
don, to admit delegates from the Southern rebel States to seats 
and votes in a national convention, to discuss with them on equal 
terms the provisions of a new constitution, or a reconstruction of 
the Union — this would be no less than downright insanity. Words 
are thrown away on such an absurd idea. 

But to hold a national convention of delegates from the loyal 
States alone appears useless. The Constitution needs no amend- 
ments so very urgently, none at least that can not as well wait 
even twenty years, until the Union is reconstructed, and until 
every rebellious State has become loyal and republican. Let us 
first fulfill the task intrusted to us ; let us restore the regenerated 
Union, a Union of free States ; let us eradicate the prejudices of 
race, color, nationality, and caste ; let us call into existence every- 



26 THE FUTURE OP THE COUNTRY. 

where a healthy, republican, law-abiding, tolerant spirit; and 
when the dawn of the new era is upon us, then we may again meet 
together in a national convention, if so it is considered necessary, 
and frame whatever amendments the progress of the future will 
demand of the Constitution of the United States. 

European Intervention. 

Time, which roots out so many prejudices, must destroy one more 
illusion, which has taken violent possession of the American mind. 
Because at the time of Washington, when this huge republic was 
still in its infancy, not yet fully recovered from its struggle for in- 
dependence, it was considered necessary to abstain altogether from 
interference in European affairs, it has become almost canonical to 
worship what is usually styled Non-intervention. Our people 
have grown to consider themselves a political Japan, at liberty to 
disregard the struggles of foreign nations for freedom, and unwill- 
ing to express any national opinion on the struggles that convulse 
the rest of the world. A spirit of pride and arrogance has tended 
to promote the growth of this sentiment, and with astonishment 
the friends of this republic in the Old World have seen our nation 
seek an ally, not in the liberal and revolutionary elements in 
Europe, but in the worst despotism which disgraces that conti- 
nent — in Russia. This unnatural, suicidal policy can not be pur- 
sued much longer. As is often the case in history, our people are 
being forced by circumstances to adopt a course of action which 
should have been their secret guiding-star by voluntary choice. 

The interference of France in the affairs of this country, in 
Mexico, will necessarily force our nation into that policy which 
justice and humanity demand. Not into an alliance with despotic 
Russia — the despots of Russia and France, as well as the despots 
of all nations, care more about each other than about a free peo- 
ple, and will never see a fellow-despot too severely handled ; — not 
in a criminal oppression of Poland, in which this Rejmblic would 
become a disgraced participator, but in a natural and friendly 
alliance with the revolutionary elements of Europe must we seek 
for the weapons Avherewith to strike that audacious enemy, who 
has planted his foot on the soil of this continent. Let the people 
learn to know that no despot can be our friend for any length of 
time. The antagonism of principle must sooner or later force us 
into a position of hostility. Their interest it is to crush this Re- 



THE FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY. 27 

public and wipe it from the face of the earth ; and an Alexander 
will rejoice at heart if a Napoleon raises a monarchy on the shat- 
tered republic of Mexico and the nameless monster of the Con- 
federate States. Our interest it is, to have the despotisms wiped 
away. It is an everlasting principle of free governments, that no 
republic is safe until all adjoining states are republican. The 
laws of nature, of politics, of self-preservation, force a people to 
become just and cosmopolitan, even against their choice. This 
world is a world of brothers ; no nation has a right to be indif- 
ferent to the progress of another. A progressive people is inter- 
ested in promoting the progress of all ; and despotism is notorious 
for its proselyting fanaticism. We have done wrong to remain 
so long passive spectators of the liberal strivings in Mexico. We 
perceive the fault now, but it may take a long Avar to remedy it. 
May God grant that when the time comes, and the European rev- 
olution offers us its help to crush out the monster of French des- 
potism, we do not commit the same crime again. It is our duty, 
our interest, it is a solemn law of God, that we should sympa- 
thize and extend aid to the doAvn-trodden of Europe, uoav that we 
are strong and vigorous, and A\dien Ave are moreoA'er threatened 
by the enemies of those oppressed people. We have no bitterer 
enemy than the Emperor of France ; we have only friends among 
the revolutionary people of Europe : their alliance AV T e should 
seek. And, though time may prepare events sloAvly, a day will 
surely come when the free people of this Republic Avill look Avith 
pride to a brotherhood of free nations on the other side of the 
Atlantic, whose freedom and independence Ave helped to attain. 

Concluding Remarks. 

We have thus sought to trace out in, a short sketch, Avhich 
must be necessarily very imperfect, those points on AA'hich a radi- 
cal and progressiA r e party must build its platform for the next 
future government of this country. This is Avhat justice requires, 
and Avhat the A T oice of the people, which always represents just- 
ice, must approA r e. Nor can there be any doubt that these \ r iews 
could be realized, were it not that the people are unfortunately 
too much in the hands of professional politicians and Avire-pull- 
ers, Avho usurp the sovereign rights of the people, frame plat- 
forms to suit their own tastes and interests, and nominate candi- 
dates only as personal feeling, interest, and expediency may sug- 
gest. 



28 THE FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY. 

In the political contest before us — the next Presidential elec- 
tion — there can be but two chief parties : the one, the Democratic, 
representing reaction, stagnation, death of our republican insti- 
tutions ; and the other, representing the above traced-out princi- 
ples of progress and improvement. On the question of so-called 
" constitutional rights," there may be harmony between different 
elements of the two parties ; on the " negro question," they are 
separated by an impassable gulf. 

The issue should therefore be clearly and tmmistakably pro- 
nounced. The platform can not be too explicit on the above 
points ; and the leader, the Presidential candidate, must be a 
recognized champion of those principles of liberty and progress. 
To effect this, and prevent the ascendency of " conservative" 
milk-and-water elements, is the duty of the people. They can 
do it no better than by organizing in clubs and progressive socie- 
ties over the whole country ; by coming together and consulting 
about the future of the nation, what it ought to be and what they 
are determined to make it. Let them look amongst the men of 
the nation and see who oilers the surest guarantee of the realization 
of their desires ; who has denounced the despotical acts of the 
present Government, while he is also the first advocate of uni- 
versal and immediate emancipation. Let them inquire whose 
election would be the severest rebuke to the present Administra- 
tion, while it would also be the surest bond for the new era of 
universal liberty, which we feel dawning upon us. And when 
they have found this man, and are convinced that he has also that 
sympathy for the liberal strivings in Europe, which to us may be 
so important, then let the people pronounce for this man in such 
thunder-tones as no politicians or wire-pullers can and dare disre- 
gard. 



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L 010 830 Z10 



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PH8.5 

Mill Run F3-1 955 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





012 028 010 7 £ 

J 
J 



Hollinger 

pH8.5 

Mill Run F3-1955 



